By Kolby LaMarche

At a press conference this week, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak stood at a vacant, but soon to be developed, South End site and announced progress on the housing strategy her administration launched in January. 

The three-part plan, she said, has aimed to produce more affordable homes, ease rules for small-scale neighborhood building, and put city-owned land to work for residents. The long-term target remains about 7,000 new housing units by 2050, a figure the city describes as its share of statewide growth goals.

The mayor framed the effort as something larger than production targets, remarking “Burlington is at a critical juncture”. “It is about bringing housing back to the people and building a Burlington where people can afford to live, work, raise a family and put down roots,” she continued. 

She spoke at 68 Sears Lane in front of the planned South End Coordinated Redevelopment project, known as SECORD, and was joined by a sizable group of city staff from the Community and Economic Development Office, Planning, Permitting and Inspections, and the city attorney’s office. 

The mayor outlined three pillars to the plan and gave greater detail to the public than was initially released in January. 

First, the city wants to strengthen two longstanding tools: Inclusionary Zoning and the Housing Trust Fund. 

Over the past 35 years, Inclusionary Zoning has produced roughly 400 affordable units inside new developments, while the Housing Trust Fund has supported about 2,200 affordable homes. 

The administration’s goal is to double the number of affordable units coming from these tools over the next decade, so, one could surmise, 2,600 new units by 2036, though the mayor’s office never explicitly gave a number.

Staff have spent the first half of 2026 evaluating the current Inclusionary Zoning rules and studying approaches used in other cities, the mayor said, with proposed amendments intended to increase permanently affordable housing expected to reach the City Council later this year. 

Second, the city is trying to get more out of the Neighborhood Code, the 2024 zoning overhaul that opened the door to duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, accessory dwelling units and small cottage-style clusters in neighborhoods that previously allowed mostly single-family homes. 

Since the code took effect, the city has received about 45 applications proposing roughly 70 units. Only about nine of those units have been built. 

The administration’s stated goal is to double both applications and completed units in the next year. Again, one would assume this means a desired 90 applications and 18 built units, though no official goal was provided. 

Officials pointed to educational events, a second round of zoning changes that would allow rowhouses, townhouses and pocket neighborhoods, and efforts to make the permitting process clearer. They also plan to work with the state on a local pre-approval path for certain ready-to-build home designs, according to the office. One early example is a 16-unit project proposed on North Avenue that uses the new pathways.

Third, the city is emphasizing the use of public land and authority. It has signed a development agreement for SECORD Phase 1, which is projected to deliver 205 homes with a goal of approximately one-third affordable units. Construction is expected to start in 2027, with units coming online around 2028. 

A broader Public Land Study is under way to identify other city-owned sites that could support housing. Departments are also coordinating more closely on vacant and problem properties and on rehabilitating aging housing stock, the mayor said. 

Officials also highlighted a development pipeline they said could bring about 1,100 or more units online by the end of 2028, though many still sit in pre-development stages. That list includes the completed South Tower at CityPlace (53 units), the North Tower under construction (311 units, expected by the end of 2027), the Old YMCA project (79 units, targeted for June 2027), 40 units under construction at 100 Cambrian, and two larger concepts still at the pre-application or concept stage. It was not clear how many of these are considered affordable units. 

Burlington’s housing market remains expensive even as some pressure has eased from the tightest pandemic-era levels. Typical home values recently stood near $509,000 after a slight year-over-year decline. Median sale prices have generally ranged from the mid-to-high $400,000s to the low $500,000s depending on the data source and time period. 

Inventory is still limited. On the rental side, average rents have been tracked around $2,300 a month. Vacancy rates in Chittenden County have moved into the 3 to 4 percent range—higher than the sub-1 percent levels of a few years ago—thanks in part to new apartment deliveries. 

The projects now in the pipeline would represent a meaningful increase in supply if they move forward on the timelines projected. Neighborhood-scale infill and any successful modernization of Inclusionary Zoning and the Housing Trust Fund could gradually add more units. 

Yet construction costs, financing conditions, permitting complexity and the difference between market-rate and deeply affordable housing will continue to shape outcomes. Meeting the 2050 target of roughly 7,000 units would require about 280 units a year, approximately double the average of the past decade. That is a goal the mayor’s team says they can achieve. 

Whether the strategy can close that gap depends on details that have not yet been made public and on projects that have not yet broken ground. The mayor’s update provided a roadmap and some completed steps and some stuff to look forward to, including the new Housing Trust Fund revenue and the SECORD agreement.